USPTO Patents Application 09803870

United States Patent and Trademark Office

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office

Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450

Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www.uspto.gov

APPLICATION NO.

FILING DATE

FIRST NAMED INVENTOR

ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.

09/803,870

03/12/2001

Philippe Morin

27572 7590 11/15/2006

HARNESS, DICKEY & PIERCE, P.L.C.
P.O. BOX 828 '

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI 48303

9432-000134

9173

EXAMINER

VO, HUYEN X

ART UNIT

PAPER NUMBER

2626

DATE MAILED: 1 1/1 5/2006

Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.

PTO-90C (Rev. 10/03)

Application No.

09/803,870

Applicant(s)

MORIN, PHILIPPE

Examiner

Huyen X. Vo

Art Unit

2626

- The MAILING DATE of this communication appears on the cover sheet with the correspondence address
Period for Reply

A SHORTENED STATUTORY PERIOD FOR REPLY IS SET TO EXPIRE 3 MONTH(S) OR THIRTY (30) DAYS,

WHICHEVER IS LONGER, FROM THE MAILING DATE OF THIS COMMUNICATION.

- Extensions of time may be available under the provisions of 37 CFR 1 . 1 36(a). In no event, however, may a reply be timely filed
after SIX (6) MONTHS from the mailing date of this communication.

- If NO period for reply is specified above, the maximum statutory period will apply and will expire SIX (6) MONTHS from the mailing date of this communication.

- Failure to reply within the set or extended period for reply will, by statute, cause the application to become ABANDONED (35 U.S.C. § 133).
Any reply received by the Office later than three months after the mailing date of this communication, even if timely filed, may reduce any
earned patent term adjustment. See 37 CFR 1.704(b).

Status

Responsive to communication(s) filed on 26 September 2006 .
2a)n This action is FINAL. 2b)^ This action is non-final.

3) n Since this application is in condition for allowance except for formal matters, prosecution as to the merits is

closed in accordance with the practice under Ex parte Quayle, 1935 CD. 1 1 , 453 O.G. 213.

Disposition of Claims

4) ^ Claim(s) 1-22 is/are pending in the application.

4a) Of the above claim(s) is/are withdrawn from consideration.

5) 0 Claim(s) is/are allowed.

6) K1 Claim(s) 1-22 is/are rejected.

Claim(s) is/are objected to.

8) D Clalm(s) are subject to restriction and/or election requirement.

Application Papers

9) 0 The specification is objected to by the Examiner.

10) ^ The drawing(s) filed on 02 March 2001 is/are: a)^ accepted or b)n objected to by the Examiner.

Applicant may not request that any objection to the drawing(s) be held in abeyance. See 37 CFR 1 .85(a).
Replacement drawing sheet(s) including the correction is required if the drawing(s) is objected to. See 37 CFR 1.121(d).

11) 0 The oath or declaration is objected to by the Examiner. Note the attached Office Action or form PTO-152.

Priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119

12) 0 Acknowledgment is made of a claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a)-(d) or (f).
a)n All b)n Some * 0)0 None of:

1 .□ Certified copies of the priority documents have been received.

2. \Z\ Certified copies of the priority documents have been received in Application No. .

3. n Copies of the certified copies of the priority documents have been received in this National Stage

application from the International Bureau (PCT Rule 17.2(a)).
* See the attached detailed Office action for a list of the certified copies not received.

Attachment(s)

1) Notice of References Cited (PTO-892)

2) [D Notice of Draftsperson's Patent Drawing Review (PTO-948)

3) [D Information Disclosure Statennent(s) (PTO/SB/08)

Paper No(s)/Mail Date .

4) □ Interview Summary (PTO-413)

Paper No(s)/Mail Date. .

5) n Notice of Informal Patent Application

6) □ Other: .

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
PTOL-326 (Rev. 08-06)

Office Action Summary

Part of Paper No./Mail Date 20061 106

Application/Control Number: 09/803,870 Page 2

Art Unit: 2626

DETAILED ACTION
Claim Objections

1 . Claims 1-2 and 15 are objected to because of the following informalities: the
word "patch" in the last limitation of claims 1-2 and 15 should be replaced with "path".
Appropriate correction is required.

Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103

2. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all
obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:

(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set
forth In section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and
the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the
invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains.
Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.

3. Claims 1-13, 15-18, and 21-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(e) as being
anticipated by Rigsby et al. (US 6556971) in view of Shostak (US 6892083).

4. Regarding claims 1-2, Rigsby et al. disclose a method of navigating a menu
structure within an electronic product, comprising the steps of:

identifying a user-selected navigation path sequence through said menu
structure to a first location within said menu in response to user navigation to said first
location via sequential manipulation of a manual user interface of said electronic
product (step 200 in figure 2 and/or col. 6, lines 43-67, icon 350 includes a submenu of
icons shown in figure 5; each of these submenu icon can also be associated with

Application/Control Number: 09/803,870 Page 3

Art Unit: 2626

unique voice command; Also in figure 3, when a computer system is turned on, these
icons may be first manually navigated to);

obtaining a first utterance of speech comprising at least one word chosen by a
user of said electronic product {step 210 in figure 2);

storing said first utterance of speech chosen by said user as a model in a user-
built lexicon {steps 220-230 in figure 2);

associating said first utterance with said path sequence by which said first
location would be reached and generating therefrom a stored first location {steps 220-
230 in figure 2);

obtaining a second utterance of speech {col. 7, line 55 to col. 8, line 5 and col. 8,
lines 55-67);

matching said second utterance with said model of said first autterance to identify
said stored first location within said menu {col. 7, line 55 to col. 8, line 5 and col. 8,
lines 55-67)]

subsequently navigating to said first location in response to said matching by
automatically performing said path sequence {col. 7, line 55 to col. 8, line 5 and col. 8,
lines 55-67)] and

upon said identifying, making a determination whether said first utterance already
exists in association with said path sequence and, conditioned on results of the
determination, prompting the user to provide said first utterance if it does not yet exist
{col. 10, lines 20-26, training).

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Art Unit: 2626

Rigsby et al. fail to specifically disclose the step of playing said first utterance if it
already exists. However, Shostak teaches the step of playing said first utterance if it
already exists {col. 31, lines 51-67, playing back the recorded names).

Since Rigsby et al. and Shostak are analogous art because they are from the
same field of endeavor, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at
the time of invention to modify Rigsby et al. by incorporating the teaching of Shostak in
order to enable users to disambiguate similar names by presenting name candidates to
for user selection.

5. Regarding claim 15. Rigsby et al. disclose a voice binding system to aid in user
operation of electronic devices, comprising:

a menu navigator that provides a traversable menu structure offering a plurality
of predefined menu locations {each item 350 in figure 3 is a menu item), wherein said
menu navigator is operable to allow a user to identify on of said predefined menu
locations via sequential manipulation of a manual user interface of said menu navigator
that results in user navigation through said menu structure to said predefined menu
location {user select a menu to train with a voice command discussed in the operation
of figure 2);

a speech recognizer having an associated lexicon data store {inherently included
in any speech recognition system)]

a processor for adding a first utterance of user-defined speech to said lexicon
{the operation of figure 2); and

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Art Unit: 2626

a voice binding system coupled to said menu navigator for associating said first
utterance with said path sequence for navigating to said identified one of said
predefined menu locations within said menu structure {steps 220-230 in figure 2),
wherein said menu navigator is operable to traverse to said identified menu location in
response to a second spoken utterance corresponding to said user-defined speech by
automatically performing said path sequence {col. 7, line 55 to col. 8, line 5 and coi 8,
lines 55-67, upon receiving a user's input command, associated function is carried out
regardless of system's current state), and wherein said voice binding system, upon
manual of identification of said path sequence by said user, makes a determination
whether said first utterance already exists in association with said path sequence and,
conditioned on results of the determination, prompting the user to provide said first
utterance if it does not yet exist {coL 10, lines 20-26, training).

Rigsby et at. fail to specifically disclose the step of playing said first utterance if it
already exists. However, Shostak teaches the step of playing said first utterance if it
already exists {coL 31, lines 51-67, playing back the recorded names).

Since Rigsby et al. and Shostak are analogous art because they are from the
same field of endeavor, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at
the time of invention to modify Rigsby et al. by incorporating the teaching of Shostak in
order to enable users to disambiguate similar names by presenting name candidates to
for user selection.

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Art Unit: 2626

6. Regarding claims 3-5, 17-18, and 21-22, Rigsby et al. further disclose the
method and system of claims 2 and 15, respectively, further comprising storing said
navigation path as a sequence of navigation steps leading to said first location, and
storing said navigation path as a semantic sequence of navigation steps leading to said
first location {figure 3, each of element 350's is a menu item ttiat can be called at
anytime based on user's input), and wherein said menu structure includes associated
text and said method further comprises storing said navigation path as a semantic
sequence of text associated with the navigation steps leading to said first location
{referring to figure 3 and/or col. 6, line 32 to col. 7, Iine23).

7. Regarding claim 16, Rigsby et al. further disclose the voice binding of claim 15,
wherein said menu navigator includes at least one navigation button operable to
traverse said menu structure {figure 3, element 350),

8. Regarding claims 6-9, Rigsby et al. further disclose the method of claim 2 further
comprising constructing a speech model associated with said first utterance and
associating said speech model with said navigation path {col. 6, line 32 to col. 7, Iine23),
using a speech recognizer to compare said first and second utterances in performing
said matching step (coA 7, line 55 to col. 8, line 5), constructing a speech model
associated with said first utterance and using said speech model to populate the lexicon
of a speech recognizer; and using said speech recognizer to compare said first and
second utterances in performing said matching step {operation of figure 2), wherein said

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Art Unit: 2626

step of identifying a user-selected navigation path comprises displaying said first
location on a visible display associated with said electronic product and prompting said
user to provide said first utterance {figure 2, element 210 and figure 3).

9. Claims 10-14 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being
unpatentable over by Rigsby et al. (US 6556971) in view of Shostak (US 6892083), as
applied to claims 1, 2, and 15, respectively, and further in view of De Armas et al. (US
5873064),

10. Regarding claims 10-14 and 19-20, Rigsby et al. further disclose the navigation
path by the first location on a visible display associated with the electronic product and
producing a textual representation of the first utterance {figures 2-3), but fail to
specifically disclose the step of providing user an audio feedback of the first utterance,
the feedback is a textual representation using a speech recognizer, and feedback is
provided upon user's request. However, De Armas et al. teach the step of providing
user an audio feedback of the first utterance {Fig. 1A, elements Child 1, OK and
CANCEL; col. 5, ln.2-15 and coL9, In. 49-61), the feedback is a textual representation
using a speech recognizer {decoded phrase), and feedback is provided upon user's
request {Fig. 2, col. 6, In. 19-28; col. 8, 1n.25-29 and col.9, In. 19-61).

Since Rigsby et al. and De Armas et al. are analogous art because they are from
the same field of endeavors, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the
art at the time of invention to modify Rigsby et ai. by incorporating the teaching of De

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Art Unit: 2626

Armas et al. in order to enable the user to confirm input command to train for a
particular function.

Conclusion

Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the
examiner should be directed to Huyen X. Vo whose telephone number is 571-272-7631.
The examiner can normally be reached on M-F, 9-5:30.

If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's
supervisor, Richemond Dorvil can be reached on 571-272-7602. The fax phone
number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-
273-8300.

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11/6/2006